Photo Paper

Photo paper is made simply by coating a piece of paper with a light sensitive chemical called “emulsion.”

It’s then kept in complete darkness until you’re ready to make your picture. When you do, the light that comes into your cameras pinhole gets flipped, squashed, and projected onto the paper in the back of the camera (just like it was projected onto the bedroom wall with a camera obscura!)

The brighter parts of the projected image react with the tiny light-sensitive crystals in your photo paper. When a developer chemical is added, the brighter parts turn dark. Your photo paper stays white in the areas where no light reached it’s surface.

Good news! You can experiment with photo-sensitive paper without having to deal with messy chemicals! Sunprint paper will allow you to make pinhole pictures or photograms that develop in water.

Instant Film

The bottom part of your instant prints contain something very special inside: a mini-darkroom!

That’s right, that tiny pouch on the bottom of your picture is actually holding packets of gooey chemicals that develop your film for you while you watch!

When your instant camera takes a picture, the light travels through the lens and lands on the surface of your instant film.

Then, your instant camera ejects the picture in between two metal rollers. The rollers pinch the chemical packets on the bottom of your film, break them open, and spread the developer chemicals all over the surface of your image.